Webber's head start at home grand prix

Australian Mark Webber will have up to an extra two hours on the track at his home formula one grand prix in Melbourne next month after a U-turn by Jaguar Racing.

In a surprise move, Jaguar decided to join the other three teams taking advantage of a new test session on the Friday morning of the event, March 7.

That will give 26-year-old Webber, entering his second year in formula one, and his young Brazilian rookie teammate Antonio Pizzonia valuable extra track time at Albert Park ahead of qualifying.

It could also help the four teams in making better choices on tyre compounds for qualifying and the race on March 9.

The other six formula one teams will be forced to declare the tyre compounds they will use at a grand prix on the Thursday before the event, while those testing on Friday can postpone that decision until after they have run in the morning session.");document.write("

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News of Jaguar's change of heart came amid continuing turmoil over rules, with the sport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, making almost daily changes.

Jaguar's decision may also have been influenced by the edict of its parent company Ford to curb costs.

On the positive side, Jaguar's new R4-model formula one car has proved to be competitive, with Pizzonia setting a lap record at testing in Valencia, Spain, last Friday after Webber completed a trouble-free, 300-kilometre race-distance trial earlier in the week.

"I've found a very good baseline with the car," Webber said.

"It handled well on a heavy fuel load, which was encouraging. But there's still a lot of work to do before Melbourne and a few minor problems to iron out."

Two weeks ago, Webber opposed taking part in the new test session, saying: "Friday is normally a bit of a write-off in terms of development."

However, Niki Lauda, who hired Webber for Jaguar Racing before he was fired in December, had said participating in the Friday tests would be "a very, very smart thing to do".